They have not tasted the product, but it is believed the artificial meat could be on sale within five years.

Mark Post, a professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, said: ''What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue. We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there.

The project, backed by the Government and a sausage maker, follows the creation of fish fillets from goldfish muscle cells.

This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.

“You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals.”

The scientists extracted cells from the muscle of a live pig and then put them in a broth of other animal products. The cells then multiplied and created muscle tissue. They believe that it can be turned into something like steak if they can find a way to artificially "exercise" the muscle.